Does what exist? :p I think a very small percentage of the wealthy nations know about it. While it should draw media attention, as opposed to say the latest lawsuit against a game developer, it doesn't. The public is fickle.

_________________I write for IGN at http://evevault.ign.com (As Yoshi and MiyamotoYoshi).
Space is where we NEED to go.

Remember Lance Bass? Even though he couldn't get the funding, the media coverage was amazing. When the price to space is $100,000, not $20 million, there will be numerous famous people to grab media attention by going into space.

Just as in sports or politics, if you have less than 2% public recognition, raising significant money is nearly impossible. Putting someone famous into space would boost public recognition to at nearly 100%.

I read a couple of comments on this topic. Hey it is not that bad. I've seen a documentary last week about all this on the Belgian National TV, on various Belgian newssites a couple articles showed up. I myself talk about it to friends and family. If the X-prize is won it will draw a lot of media attention all over the world, but the problem will be , keeping that media attention !

I cannot fully blame media for the lack of interest. A whhile back I watched an old document of space exploration, made in early 80's. The document covered the history of space programs from Tsiolkovsky to Sputnik, the manned missions into space and on the moon, finally ending with the advent of the Space Shuttle. At that point, the history of space flight was almost 30 years old. Nowadays the tape is almost 20 years old! And what are the main space transports? Soyuz and the shuttle. Not very impressive development.

Many of my friends do consider space exploration a wortwhile effort, but I'm not making a big error saying all of them have fallen into the "Too expensive, too complicated" -apathy. I really hope the X-Prize will change all that. To make space exciting again, and reachable to the regular people.

This might be low, but "60 mile high club" could generate some public interest

Vendigo writes: "This might be low, but "60 mile high club" could generate some public interest."

It might be low but correct. And that begs another question, "What generates excitement these days? It is you know, all about the marketing. When someone like Lance Bass, Tom Hanks, or the Dixie Chicks take a suborbital flight for the price, you and I could afford, then the public perception of private space travel will be universally accepted.

The subject of space travel is science fact and science fiction. Science fact in that humans have made it out of the earths atmosphere. Science fiction in that masloes heirarchy (shelter warmth food, belonging, love etc.) of needs is still in its early stages for most of the planet. in other words, most of the west think that space travel happens in the movies and the future and that some one else will make it happen.

Consider a couple of billion people trying to kill each other, a couple of hundred million trying to stop these people killing each other and a handful trying to give the human race an option, space travel. I have studied business and have been in convenience retail most of my life. I dearly want to develop an international space industry. The only thing holding back the advance of space is the amount of energy we as a human race dedicate to its development.

The next best step to give the human race this option of space travel is precisely what the XPRIZE is doing. That is providing the incentive to develop a private space industry to attract capital investment, human interest and human energy. When a healthy private space industry is developed, mankind will have another safety valve to the radical morons who are, as you say, intent on killing everyone else.

This effort is becoming a movement of epic proportions with teams not only from the USA, but United Kingdom, Canada, Israel, Romania, Argentina, and Russia. Within this decade we could have suborbital flights from North & South America, Europe, Asia. That would leave Africa as the only populated continent without a space industry. Maybe Mark Shuttleworth can do something about that.

I completely agree. The future of private space travel will depend, at least in part, on the initial public perceptions of X PRIZE flights. Just think about the following possible reactions:

A bunch of spoiled rich guys taking their ambitions to higher altitudes.... A group of egalitarian innovators bringing space travel to the public... A despicable expansion of corporate excess to a previously "pure" frontier... The long-overdue expansion of free market innovation to an overexpensive area...

Which ones do we want? And how will we promote them?

traveler wrote:

When someone like Lance Bass, Tom Hanks, or the Dixie Chicks take a suborbital flight for the price, you and I could afford, then the public perception of private space travel will be universally accepted.

Again, I agree completely. Wouldn't it be cool if Rutan held a raffle for a flight? After all, if he does indeed intend to send up SS1 once every Tuesday for 4 months, as reported, it seems like he might have a lot of open seats.

Well, rather than sitting about doing nothing, why dont you all put your heads together and start coming up with advertising ideas?

I live in the UK, and the last thing i heard of the Xprize was on Discovery channel and it was years old. I had totally forgotten about it till just a few hours ago, I didnt even know the name anymore and it took me a good 20 mins of searching to come up with the site.

So maybe some sort of plan to advertise on popular websites, forums etc would be a decent idea?

Well, rather than sitting about doing nothing, why dont you all put your heads together and start coming up with advertising ideas?

I live in the UK, and the last thing i heard of the Xprize was on Discovery channel and it was years old. I had totally forgotten about it till just a few hours ago, I didnt even know the name anymore and it took me a good 20 mins of searching to come up with the site.

So maybe some sort of plan to advertise on popular websites, forums etc would be a decent idea?

I think the comment about the percieved lack of personal glory is an over looked part of the puzzle. Almost no one wants to be part of something with low social status. It is changing, the media and the public form an iteresting feedback loop. I hope that space is sufficiently romanticised in the near future that people will start to respond.

Just thoughts though. Like many here(we are here after all) I can not understand how some one would not be completely enthralled by the energy and dreams.

Maybe a $5 million award called the "A-Prize" for the first company to successfully mine a near earth asteroid for precious metals.

Uhhhh.... That's not even mildly interesting to a mining firm. Profits from a belt asteroid are something on the order of $100M (as a conservative estimate -- and that strictly for Platinum-Group Metals), so I doubt anybody who can actually finance a 'roid miner would be interested in $5M prize as anything more than a nice Christmas bonus. Not a bad idea, but I doubt that a prize is actually necessary: with that much money at stake, companies will do it on their own.

First thing, movements into space will be largely independent, and it is unlikely that they will be done under the banner of the UN. I am referring to your comment that says, "Space travel will become a reality with larger masses pulling together for ONE COMMON GOAL (emphasis in original)!" It sounds an awful lot like what the Communists were talking about that came to mean to unite under one state to do it. I personally think such a concept is scary.

I think governments are going to be too dysfunctional to attempt projects like that or even allow them. For the "safety" of the spacefarers, they may in the near- to medium-term future outlaw space travel (at least private space travel).

We may not all have the skill to participate in a project, but we can invest our money. These investments however must not be coerced. People need to decide for themselves to whom to give their money. Also, the resources for space travel that are presently being sucked up by the government need to be free. There are too many great minds and hands being wasted by following government directives. They instead need to be freed up, so they can work on projects like the XPrize instead of being given money coerced from taxpayers to simply do what the government tells them and allows them to do. Far too often the government gets the best resources for itself and then wastes them. Therefore NASA (and equivalent agencies in other countries) needs to be abolished.

I have great confidence that if the government stays out of the way, this is attainable. I am also confident that if this technology is developed enough and the government outlaws it, spacefarers will simply flash one big middle finger at the government and go into space anyway.

Once the XPrize is won, and space travel seems viable, then the investors will line up.

GeoBum wrote:

This is all true but the fact remains that WE ALL have to do something about it. We cannot just rely on space companies and the academic communities to relay the message and goals of space travel. WE ALL have to take part in it. If we leave the job for others then not only will very few individuals be aware of the spaceprogram and travel but it will hinder and stagnate it further.

Educational outreach is a must, competition between teams/organization/etc. is necessary. We are a very competitive race and rely on technology for communication and basically survival.

ALL of us must help out in an (small) way we can: from giving lectures to children in school, speaking with politicians, attending conference and workshops, etc.

Space travel will become a reality with larger masses pulling together for ONE COMMON GOAL! That's what got us to the Moon. We did not diverge from ONE goal. We were focused and we made it. If we stay focused we can make it back to the Moon and eventually to Mars. Suboribital is the first (but not the last step) in achieving our goals. Together we can do it!

LETS DO IT! ITS' TIME FOR A MARKETING STRATEGY! I'm talking commercials, ads in magazines, web ads, articles written by X Prize judges, television spots on popular late night television... uh... anybody got like, 50 mil. i could borrow?? Cmon, I'm good for it...

But seriously though, if nothing else, one could always make a poster design, post it on the web so people (us) can print it out in vast quantities to put places to get the word to the masses... I dunno if that would work, but it's an idea, for starters.

_________________Only in darkness, the light. Only in silence, the word. Only in dying, life. Bright, the hawk's flight, on the empty sky.